Here is a story that I actually plan to finish. Enjoy.
This means reading
'This means dreams/flashbacks/thoughts'
'This means whisper'
"This means shout"
"This means talking"
Miko at War
'Blood. Lots and lots of blood. Splatters of crimson painted the once snowy battlefield along with the limp bodies of the injured and the rotting bodies of the dead. The smell of blood became toxic gas as crows fell from the sky like black rose petals on a grave. The living struggled through the mess of bodies as they moved, one wrong step resulting in another life lost, his corpse and blood food to the death-glazed snow. A pair of small eyes surveyed the scene, in disgust and horror they shrieked. Locked on a single pair of warriors, tears fell from those frightened eyes. A young man, looking no older than thirty, slowly fell to the ground in defeat, nearly quartered, asphyxiated by his own blood…'
"PAPA!!!!!!!" A female voice of five screamed, jolting upward out of a frightening slumber. Almost immediately, a man and woman ran into the young girl's room, the woman held the girl close to her frame in comfort.
"Shhh, shhh, it's okay, it's okay Aikenka. Daddy's fine, daddy's fine." She cooed to her youngster, who was crying and shaking vigorously.
"Papa, papa…" the girl named Aikenka whimpered.
"What is it Ai-chan?" the male asked, patting the girl's back.
"Papa…" the girl choked, burying her head in her mother's chest as she tried to swallow her sobs. The mother frowned in concern as she continued her cooing, rocking her child slowly back and forth while her father hugged them both in sanctuary.
Five years later, we meet that same girl named Aikenka. Her eyes like bars of gold and hair as black as oil. Small canine ears at the top of her head twitching in playfulness as she sat on the old oak tree, swinging her legs as she day-dreamed. She wore a small white haori with red pants and dark blue sandals which slid back and forth on her small feet as she kicked. Closing her golden eyes, Aikenka took a deep cleansing breath to clear her mind...
… That was when it all began…
'What is this? This smell… it's so… metallic…' Looking to the horizon with concerned eyes, she caught sight of an eagle struggling to fly as blood dripped fleetingly from its left wing. Exhausted, the bloody eagle went limp and dropped to the Earth below. The girl gasped, and abruptly stood from her perch on the oak tree, 'That bird... I could have sworn that I've seen it before,' it felt like déjà vu, but Aikenka was certain that she had never seen a dying eagle before... 'It didn't drop too far off- about two or three miles from here. I could find it and be back again in no time.' Leaping to the ground, she raced in the direction of the eagle, ignoring her mother's instructions of not going too far from home.
She had underestimated the distance, as her search for the eagle took her a dangerous four miles away from home. She leaned forward as she crouched down and studied the fallen eagle: his deep-purple eyes were trying to blink and his beak was shivering; possibly from the shock of the fall, or from the initial attack itself.
"Your feathers are beautiful," she spoke to the eagle, "I've never seen feathers as red as yours before!" Aikenka began stroking the frightened bird's feathers in an attempt to hush it, 'What the-?' The eagle wasn't red at all, rather it was caked in blood. Aikenka knew that the bird was injured, but from what she could see only the left wing was injured!
'Ah…' Aikenka half-gasped, "You need mama's help right away!" With that, she slowly picked up the bird and ran back home.
"AIKENKA!" Kagome yelled, "AIKENKA!" she yelled in the opposite direction. Nothing is more frightening to a mother than their child pulling a Copperfield disappearing act. "AIKENKA!"
"MAMA!" Kagome snapped her head in the direction of her daughter's yells.
"Aikenka?!" Out of the forest emerged her daughter, running at full speed, "AIKENKA! Are you hurt?!" She asked as she spied the mass of red that had stained her daughter's favorite (once white) haori.
"Mama! I'm fine, but he isn't!" Aikenka presented her mother with the rasping bird she had found in the woods. Kagome was taken aback at the sight of its injuries, but accepted it and hurried it inside the house for treatment.
"Where on Earth have you been, aí surù? And what happened to this bird?"
"Well, I-"
"Never mind- I mean, tell me later sweet pea, right now I need you to take a bucket down to the well and get some water so that I can mix some herbs for your bird. Can you do that for me Aikenko?" the young girl nodded and set off to help her mother tend to her injured guest. While her daughter was fetching the most crucial ingredient for the healing herb mix, Kagome dabbed the bird's body with a clean rag, 'It's barely doing any good, there's demon blood all over it!' she thought. The blood was drying very quickly, too quickly for an ordinary bird.
Just what every mother needs: demons in the house.
'… but, wait a minute, the wound on the left wing is flowing freely. So, this bird isn't a demon? How can that be? Wha-… we are living in an era of peace! Why is blood being shed between mortals and demons?' Kagome continued to clean the bird as best she could without fresh water, eager to catch even a fraction of an answer to her query. As she cleaned the bird's foot the familiar sound of rustling paper caught Kagome's attention. Low and behold, masterfully placed at the base of the leg where the feathers met the talons, there was a neatly folded note. Kagome unwrapped the note from the bird's leg, careful not to add to the bird's pain in the process, and scanned it for signs of an owner. What she found was a 'ke' symbol, neatly wrote in cursive katakana.
"Keiko?" Kagome muttered in surprise before glancing back at the eagle, "You're one of Keiko's messenger eagles aren't you?" Kagome then carefully but quickly examined where she had taken the note to see what color the eagle's feathers were. Her eyes almost jettisoned out of her head when she saw.
Black feathers.
At the moment Aikenka came through the door with her mother's requested pale of water.
"Mama! Here's the water you asked for!" Her mother wasn't listening, but rather frantically reading some strange note. "Mama, what's that?" Kagome's eyes snapped forward before turning towards her daughter. She was suddenly more pale than a ghost. "Mama, what's wrong?"
"Aikenka, listen to me," Kagome said grabbing her daughter by the shoulders, "Send a villager to get into contact with your father- NO! Your father can't do it alone!" Kagome bit her lip in fear, unaware of how confused and slightly frightened her daughter was at her mother's hysterics. "Okay! Aikenka, send a villager to find your father, uncle Miroku, aunt Sango, and uncle Shippou IMMEDIATELY!" Aikenka nodded and Kagome loosened her grip on her daughter, "Wait!" she tightened her grip once more, "Also tell them to send an emergency message to the wolf prince Kouga! You must tell the messengers to put finding your father, Miroku, Sango, Shippou, and the wolf prince as a number one emergency priority! Am I clear?" Aikenka gulped and nodded hastily.
"Yes mama!" Aikenka said before running into the village to find their fastest messenger.
"Hurry Aikenka!"
"YES MAMA!"
Now alone with the bird, Kagome shivered as she began mixing an herbal cure for their guest. As she applied the mixture her breathing was unsteady. "This eagle is Keiko's, so the message is from the West…" She mumbled to the air. When the bird was bandaged, she walked to the nearest vantage point and looked to the West. "Sesshomaru, Keiko… are you certain?" she looked to the paper again with another hand on her heart in worry.
Lord Inuyasha and Lady Kagome, I bring tidings of terrible news.
Yesterday, our southern borders were attacked by an unknown army.
Normally, such acts wouldn't be such a bother, but something was different about this army…
According to sources, the soldiers of the army were fleshless. Mere bones.
The same sources tell of weapons used, it is as our nightmares have come alive…
They had the miasma… of a spider. This peaked our interest, and although Sesshomaru-kun won't admit it, our fears.
Upon inspecting the area, Sesshomaru looked worried.
When I too smelt the air, fear quickly rose from the pit of my being.
That's when we knew…
Lord Inuyasha, Lady Kagome,
Naraku has returned.